Portland Blazes a Trail To the Bottom of the NBA

This is a story about a team that was a perennial contender in the 1990s but has fallen on hard times of late. The team is way over the salary cap, saddled not only with bad contracts belonging to veteran players, but with the bloated contracts of younger players who are considered to be vastly overpaid due to their indifferent defensive play and poor shot selection.The team brought in a Brooklyn playground legend in the hopes of bolstering the offense, but that has failed. It brought in one of the most respected coaches in the league to tighten up the defense, but that too has failed. Now night after night, empty seats dominate its home arena, which had been one of the league’s most difficult places to play for road teams.Think this is about the Knicks? Guess again, this is the story of the Portland Trailblazers, the team that qualified for 21 straight postseasons between 1983 and 2003 but now sits at 20-53 and, entering last night’s action, were suffering from a longer losing streak than even the Knicks.The overpaid young players are power forward Zack Randolph and swingman Darius Miles (whom Knicks team president Isiah Thomas covets despite Miles’s bad rep on and off the court).The Brooklyn legend is Sebastian Telfair, who happens to be a cousin of Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, though the two have a chilly relationship. After struggling in his rookie season, Telfair’s shooting percentage has declined with his assists-per-game average. Instead of easing his way into the starter’s job, Telfair has increasingly found himself on the bench behind rookie Jarrett Jack.Head coach Nate McMillan’s reputation for defense was overblown during his tenure in Seattle. Though he was indeed a stellar defender as a player, none of his Supersonics teams finished in the top half of the league in Defensive Efficiency (points per 100 possessions). After ranking 21st in Defensive Efficiency last season, the Blazers have fallen to 28th this year, ranking one spot below the lowly Knicks.The bottom has been giving way for the Knicks for the last five years, but for the Trail Blazers the freefall came much more quickly, and they’ve taken steps to stop it. Some of their maneuvers are admirable and others are so bad that even Knicks fans can laugh with derision.In 2000, the Blazers were one quarter away from the NBA Finals and a probable championship, when they fell apart. Three years later, the team nearly rallied from an 0-3 deficit in their first-round series against Dallas, losing in Game 7.The core of those Blazers teams, however, consisted of very old players like Arvydas Sabonis, Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith, and Greg Anthony, and malcontents like Rasheed Wallace, Ruben Paterson, Damon Stoudamire, and Bonzi Wells (a very young Jermaine O’Neal was on the 2000 roster but got overlooked and was traded for Dale Davis.) Following the season, the geezers retired or left town, leaving the team to the malcontents. Drug busts, domestic violence, and other legal trouble became as much part of the team’s news as playoff contention. The front office cleaned house and signed their most promising players to long-term deals.That strategy looked good on paper. Randolph has been just above league average and he’s owed $73 million until 2011. Miles, who has clashed with every coach he’s played for, is owed $34 million until 2009. In addition, the Blazers have buried themselves deeper into cap hell by giving middling pivotman Theo Ratliff a $34 million deal that doesn’t expire until 2008. Ratliff has been consistently outplayed by Joel Przybilla, who is playing for the league minimum and is a free agent at season’s end. The Blazers may not be able to afford to retain him.The good news in Portland is that the Blazers will emerge from cap hell next summer. Randolph, Miles, and Ratliff will still be on the books, but those are the only onerous contracts. So, is Portland setting its sights on particular players, angling to build a nucleus to make themselves attractive to prospective free agents like Orlando is doing right now?Nope. Instead, the Blazers are engaged in a political mud wrestling match with city officials, claiming they need stadium concessions. Neither the public nor the fan base have been particularly sympathetic. The team is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and he sold his partnership in the Rose Garden to avoid taking a one year loss on construction expenses. That move has blown up in his face. The arena’s new owners have refused to revise Allen’s lease. The NBA stepped in to try and negotiate a sale, but backed out a few weeks later.Meanwhile, the Blazers make the Knicks look good by comparison this season. Portland is losing by an average of nearly 10 points per game compared to the Knicks’ 6.8 point average margin. Allen’s desire to sell the team, possibly to out-of-town buyers, will hamstring the team’s off-season moves, and although the Trail Blazers still own their draft picks, their recent selections do little to build confidence in the team’s future.So, Knicks fans, things really could be worse. At least the worst thing that can be said about your team is that it can’t play defense.mjohnson@nysun.com

Portland Blazes a Trail To the Bottom of the NBA

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